Cast

Storyline

Saivam (English: Vegetarianism) is a 2014 Tamil drama film written, directed and produced by A. L. Vijay. The film features Nassar in the lead role and child actress Sara Arjun plays another pivotal role, while the director's regular crew of cinematographer Nirav Shah and composer G. V. Prakash Kumar also worked on the project. The film was released on 6 June 2014. The film was remade in Telugu as Dagudumootha Dandakor.

Kathiresan (Nassar) is the head of a large family which consists of three of his sons and a daughter and their respective families. Everyone get together at his house for a vacation. When the entire family goes to their temple on a given day, some ill-fated events occur. The family thinks it is because it had forgotten to perform a ritual sacrifice which involved the slaughter of a rooster known as Pappa (a rooster), which was part of their poultry.

This thought is fueled all the more by each family member blaming this to be the cause for all their problems both at home and at work. Kathiresan decides to sacrifice Pappa in the upcoming festival, and the family rests assured that all their problems will disappear eventually after the ritual. Then, suddenly, Pappa goes missing.

The members of the family are aghast at Pappa's disappearance and begin searching for it. It turns out that Kathiresan's granddaughter Tamizhselvi (Sara Arjun) hides Pappa in the attic in order to save it from getting slaughtered. Tamizhselvi loves Pappa so much that she cannot stand to see it die.

The rest of the story revolves around Tamizhselvi's attempts to save Pappa from being slaughtered and the family's attempts to find the rooster and performing the ritual. In doing so, the film showcases the lost values of family tradition and a child's innocent love for a rooster.

The climax and ending of the movie properly light the shades of character shown as dark earlier. Though parts of the movie seemed a bit dramatic but the ending completes the circle of an idea created from the movie and its title to a real incident in the life of director Vijay's mom.